The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1887-10-21
THE CITY OF NANTES.
A PEOPLE WHOSE COSTUMES ARE
OF ECCENTRIC DESCRIPTION.

A Refuge from the Artificial Life at the
French Capital-A HomeIike Meal at .
Hotei--Principal Business street-A
Royaiist's opinion of the city
Nantes takes a certain character from
the sea, from the fishermen and from all
the queer types of humanity who dwell
along the coast of this department and OF
Morbihan well on up toward Brest. The
costumes of these people are of the most
eccentric description, so much SO that IL is
said that nowhere else in France can there
be seen such a variety. Some are strik-
ingly picturesque. There is the peasant
woman, for instance, whose business it is
TO cultivate early potatoes In the sand
near Noirmoutier and bring them to mar
ket. She wears skirt coming lust below
the knees, small cap, some sort of apron,
checked or otherwise, and has the
foot, ankle and calf entirely exposed, or
shoes or sabots neatly polished and stock
ings closely fitting and often of intricate
pattern. The shoes and hosiery are their
special weakness, and it is not rare TO see
among them a well made foot and ankle
The entire costume is commonly in sober
colors and neatly kept On the contrary,
you see little girls with long skirts COM
they had just stepped from one of Van
dykes portraits.
AS a specimen of the male costume of
Morbihan, we have the low crowned,
round topped hat of velvet, or of straw or
felt bound with velvet, very jaunty, or,
as the French would say, chic The
jacket is something like the voluminous
exterior garment of our ancestors of the
seventeenth century, but a jacket all the
same, and gay with rows of buttons SO
thickly set that they overlap one an
other. The collar of the shirt is as broad
as ships mainsail. 1t is open in front
and rises stifily up behind the head, serv-
ing as background to face that is the
picture of innocence and as quaint as the
costume itself
1t Is pleasant relief to get away from
the highly artificial life and the highly ar
tificial articles of food and drink at Paris
even to stupid and not over cleanly place
like Nantes. The country offers its treas
ures more generously than the city. It is
pleasant to know that the wines, if they
are not Clos Vougeot, Pomard, Chateau
Lefite or Chateau Yquen, are at least all
they pretend to be; that you are near the
place where people produce their own but
ter and lay their own eggs; where they
even put the butter on the table and sell
their milk at four cents a quart from the
wagons in the street and at the corner
groceries. 1t is really with homelike
feeling that you sit down to breakfast or
dinner in hotel in town in Anjou, or
at the hotel at Nantes on which l be-
slowed my humble patronage The still
ness that pervades the dining room is SOL
emn. You hear two or three flies buzzing
behind the lace curtains that drape the
windows You look up to the ceiling not
painted by Michael Angelo, but by some
unimmortalized local fresco painter, in
imitation of the sky You don't remem-
Der ever to have seen exactly such shades
of blue in the armament before. But no
matter. The chandeliers are attached to
the ceiling with blue ribbons painted fiat
thereon, the ends drawn out sideways and
held in the beaks of doves, the species
and the school Of art being alike unfa-
miliar.
Into the room steal furtively from time
to time representatives of the Nantals
bourgeoise-solid, solemn, funereal-who
TRANQUILITY partake of the several courses
and then steal away as stealthi!y as they
entered. Perhaps there enters q whole
Breton family father, mother, sons,
daughters and bonne-all of whom make
the sign of the cross before taking their
places. Their dress is quiet and their
manners almost as reverential as If they
were in church. The repast is served by
the mature garcons-one gray haired
whom you seem family to recollect as
having seen in the opera of "The Hugue-
nots." Their duty is performed decorously
and entirely in keeping with the sur
roundings. There is none of bewardage
so often seen at French tables. The
cuisine is rather remarkable for its pro-
fusion than its fine quality, thus reversing
the Partisan rule. Some dishes are even
left on the table where persons can help
themselves. Nothing could be more
un-Parisian. The butter is of q char
acter to attract attention. There are
perhaps twenty persons at table COM
paratively few persons come to Nantes)
and there are four rolls of golden
butter distributed along the table,
each weighing at least a pound, and, like
everything else offered you, it is "a discre-
ton" Then You drink, if you are dis
posed, whole bottle of white or red wine.
The hotel is, believe, the best in Nantes,
and your breakfast and dinner cost you
together only five francs day, while a
good room costs only three francs more.
In coming from Cholet to Nantes made
the acquaintance Of young lawyer Of
preference and u most charming and in
telligent travelling companion. He said to
me, 'Nantes is vile de luxe" AS
have already remarked, this is not init
mated to the stranger. There is nothing
in the houses or shops that would indicate
1t. Then as ! met him in the evening he
conducted me through what he said was
the principal business street.-The only
business street in fact-a thoroughfare
narrow and crooked like the rest, half
mile in length and having on either side
commonplace shops, badly lighted and
with poor displays of goods in the win
dows. There were no carriages, but it
was filed with a crowd of promenaders
walking purposely to and fro and look
ing listlessly into the uninteresting
windows, as | have seen them in
the smaller towns Of Italy or else
where in Europe. There was nowhere
else to go, theatres being closed and sum
mer amusements conspicuous by their
absence, The rich were at the watering
places; the poor We're amusing themselves
In low drinking houses, such as are seen
In the pictures of Temers and Steen, of
types that are universal and have been for
BOO years,
There are, however, at Nantes things
that are solid, substantial and elegant in
the way of art and architecture. The
cathedral and other churches are among
the finest in France, and there are statues
of kings and other celebrities in them, or
here and there in avenues and streets
about the city. There is a library OF 100,-
900 Volumes and the museum of paint
ings and statuary, the finest in France
outside of Paris and Versailles. 1t is well
worth visit. / went to the castle, which
Is not so massive and interesting as that
at Anglers, and better preserved, and from
the top of the dungeon tower the concierge
pointed out to me that great place of the
famous noyades, one of the most Infamous
"reminiscences of the revolution, Albert
Sutliffe in San Francisco Chronicle.